Product description

In the early 1990s the shadow of Tiananmen Square darkened the social, cultural, and intellectual excitement that China had experienced in the 1980s. But with the end of the Cold War and the beginning of economic reform after 1992, cultural production was rejuvenated and, as the century came to a close, the Chinese intellectual field began to regain its assertiveness and articulation. Whither China? explores these developments. Contributors. Rey Chow, Zhiyuan Cui, Michael Dutton, Gan Yang, Harry Harootunian, Peter Hitchcock, Rebecca Karl, Louisa Schein, Wang Hui, Shaoguang Wang

Author information

Xudong Zhang is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies at New York University.

Review quote

"The introduction is a real "tour de force," It shows excellent understanding both of the intellectual climate of the West, which still tends to be the source of 'global ideas' and of China. . . . [T]his book . . . has been beautifully edited and written. . . . The production is . . . excellent . . . . [T]his is an important book. The introduction is especially important . . . [I]t should be very useful for specialists and students and I recommend it strongly." --Colin Mackerras, "The China Review"

Table of contents

Contents: Part I Overview From ideology to politics: Intelelctual development in China in the 1990s Xudong Zhang New York University Part II Against the neo-liberal dogma: Four arguments from China Toward a plebian democracy: A critique of Chinese conservatism in the 1990s Yang Univerity of Hong Kong Whither China? The discourse on property rights in the Chinese reform context Zhiyuan Cui Massachusetts Institute of Technology The changing role of the government in China Shaoguang Wang Yale University Contemporary Chinese thought and the question of modernity Wang Hui Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Part III In the global context King Kong in Hong Kong: Watching the "Handover" from the USA Rey Chow University of California, Irvine The burden of history: On Lin Zexu (1959) and The Opium War (1997) Rebecca Karl New York University Mao to the market Peter Hitchcock City University of New York Chinese consumerism and politics of envy: Cargo in the 1990s? Louise Schein Rutgers University Nationalism, mass culture and intellectual strategies in post-Tiananmen China 1990s Xudong Zhang New York University Street scenes of subalternality: China, globalization and rights Michael Dutton University of Melbourne